Pages

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Sometimes I’ll toy with words, maybe a cliché such as “Hang in there!”Then I visualize Isabel and friends in various circumstances and positions of “hanging in.”Sometimes I’ll sketch the image before putting brush to paint, but, mostly, I “draw” as I paint.One of the beauties of working with acrylic is that if I don’t like the way something looks, I can just paint over it.

Sometimes I’ll see something in a magazine that triggers an Isabel moment.I’m notorious (just ask my family) for cutting up magazines.For a couple of years, I kept a file on magazine eyes; one on frogs; one on barns; etc.Recently, I threw out all those scraps of paper.Most of the time, I paint from memory or imagination, sometimes referring to a calendar or book for a particular detail.

My images tell stories, I’ve found.Even if Isabel is by herself, one may guess a scenario by the scenery or props.Also I try to give clever titles to pieces, such as “Udderly Octo-whelmed,” tools to prompt the viewer into understanding the story.